Costume Party #3

That little weiner in the front is my Middlest Boy. Cracks.Me.Up.

Costume Party #3-- a Birthday Bash for my sweet niece, Caitlin!

We had princesses, zombies, hot dogs, a batman....even a cute little bunny...

Below, my precious sister-in-law, Olive Oil, and her Popeye boyfriend. Cuteness!!
(Incidentally, they borrowed these costumes from us, so expect to see my Man and I decked out in them before long! #Ilovedressup)

We also made skeleton crayons for Halloween!

Just peel crayons, break 'em up, stick them in a silicone mold (this is the Wilson skull mold). Next, put them in the oven on 275 degrees for about 15 minutes. When they were all hot and melty, I used a toothpick to swirl the colors a bit.

Then just let 'em cool and they'll pop right out.

Have fun and stay safe, my friends!

Costume Party #2

Update in photos:

Top Row: Chris, Carina, Kristin, me, Fred, Astine, Amy, Joshua, Jason
Second Row: Coli, Vu, Isabelle, Julie, Jenny, Bryan
Bottom: Athena and Traci

 Traci's costume totally cracked me up!!!

The right to bear arms-- yeah, baby!

Below, my lovely youngest sister, and my incredibly tall and beautiful teenage daughter.
They're 16 years apart, but about the same size. :)

 I went as Cleopatra to this party, and my Man went as Julius Caesar.
We're trying out the couple theme outfits this time around.
(We also own the Popeye and Olive Oil set!)

Here we have Jenny AKA Cat-Nurse from Dr.Who, and Amy AKA Harlequin mime.

And now, to get ready to go, once again! :)

Costume Cooking Club Par-taaaaay

My lovely little sister, Medusa
and me, Victorian Steampunk

Left to right: me, Tracy, Kari, Traci, Rochelle, Julie ( below, Medusa), Michele (sitting, pirate), Megan, and Kailee

I'll tell ya, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I looooove dressing up, love hanging out with friends, love making funky gross-looking food, and loooooove parties!

For Cooking Club, we had a great group of former and current members.

Oh my goodness, these women are FUN!

Mmmmm...BACON!

Forgive the food pictures. I neglected to take any with my camera, but my sister did manage to snag some with her phone.
I made a vomiting pumpkin (guacamole...mmmmm)

Used Q-tips (mini marshmallows with white icing and crushed cookies on the end)

Bloody band-aids (graham crackers with white icing and strawberry pie filling- YUM)

The bleeding brain
(gelatin, pureed peaches and syrup, whipped cream vodka, filled with blackberry and strawberry pie filling)

Fun times, y'all, fun times!!

We went to another fab-u-lous party last night. Pictures to come.

And today we are headed to yet another.

Seriously, this is a fun fun time of year!

The crayonized pumpkin

A quick easy craft for our Wednesday afternoon!

The kids peeled crayons, and I ran them through my cheapy little hot glue gun,

 to drip on my $3 white Wal-Mart pumpkin.

(I prefer getting my pumpkins from Aldi, but they didn't have any white ones there.)

I'm pleased with the end result!

Voila!

More color for my colorful home!

Doodly page details

Another simple, marker-colored No Solicitor sign. I plan to scan both of them, available to print, if you so desire. Spread the love. And the solicitor-free-beautiful-days.

 Some extra-incentive-to-run detail added in:

 And, after a couple of email requests for bigger pictures and/or more detail, I took a few more. I appreciate the kind words. I do hope to inspire!

 Really, these pages are just a combination of lettering, doodling, and diary-thoughts.

 This page isn't done. I always keep several going, to work on in the car, while we watch a movie, or at other times when I'm unable to simply sit still.

No Soliciting Sign & other misc art!

No Soliciting

at this bright, happy, yellow cottage!

I'd been meaning to make a cute little sign to laminate and post in the window.

(If a solicitor passes the others, on the fence and by the doorbell.)  

I'll be honest.

I seriously thought about making a gory one (like a bear ripping a solicitor apart),

but decided against it, for the children's sake.Below, my work space-- kitchen table, Lucy asleep on a platter, oodles of markers and pens nearby. Someday I'd love to have my own little studio to Artsy Up, but I'm not holding my breath. ;)

This is fine and dandy for now.

The boys posed with their pumpkin art yesterday, before the storms rolled through:

Cute stuff! They worked hard on these designs.

In the evening, as storms started rolling through, I felt ridiculously energized, as if the lightning was coursing through my veins. There was an itch-- an ache-- to draw, make, design, paint SOMETHING.

And so I did.

While Fred and I watched Bond movies, he folded clothes and I drew and drew...and drew...

Here are a couple of the pages from my sketchbook.

Just journaly-doodly things. The one above isn't complete yet.

 There's something so soothing about letting your pen move, and letting ideas and images flow out.

Frida Kahlo

 

"Painting completed my life."Frida Kahlo

 

We've been reading about and studying famous artists in the afternoons. 

Last week included Frida Kahlo.

Frida and Diego, 1932

 

Frida was a Mexican painter, best known for her numerous self-portraits.

"I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone,

because I am the person I know best."-Frida 

 

On the first day, we read the summary of her life (not in all the detail, as she led a very troubled, very painful life), and then painted pictures of Frida.

What strikes me about this woman is that, despite her physical injuries, the war that raged around her, and a volatile marriage, she clung to art. After an accident that left her in a full body cast for months, she began to paint. "Her mother had a special easel made for her so she could paint in bed, and her father lent her his box of oil paints and some brushes."

Here, my thoughts were drifting to children in shelters, hospital beds, foster homes...children who could also cling to art, if they were given the supplies and encouragement (what can we do about this? Let's make it happen. I'm brainstorming...)

 

Our finished products:

Next, we did our own self-portraits, in the bright and vibrant colors, frontal-view that Frida used.

Those coming up soon! :)

A well-behaved woman?

 

Okay, so I may not be the picture of a homeschool mama.

I may drink beer. I may listen to alternative rock. I may play dress up occasionally (or maybe every day) and I may love 50s clothes, action movies, and color on every surface in my home. I just might fight with my husband occasionally. And *cough* sometimes say some bad words while I'm at it.

I may ignore dishes so I can finish my mystery novel instead, on occasion.

That just might be me.

But I am determined.
I'm not perfect, but I TRY. I will make things happen.
I'm not perfect, but I love passionately.
I'm not perfect, and I don't always analyze what I'll say or what's been said to me...
I just assume the best. I've already moved on. No sweat.
I'm okay with not being perfect.

I'm okay with not being "the picture" of what I'm "supposed" to be.

Because, really, I'm supposed to be me. It's who God made me.
Took me a loooong time but, dang, I'm okay with it now. ;)

In fact, I've finally embraced the eclectic, color-crazed, artsy, wing-it, adventurous me. I've found ways to help others, using what I have. I want to inspire and, hopefully, I do on occasion.

Can I just encourage you to be who you are?

Don't worry about what others think so much.

Dress how you want (I'm currently wearing a Wonder Woman shirt and cape- no joke.)

School in a way that is best for your family.

Use the talents you have. You DO have talents.

Embrace yourself as the miracle that God made you, and then use that to live life to it's fullest.

Don't worry about the picture that's been in your mind, just paint your own!